Should you want one, you could order an “Anyone but England” T-shirt right now on eBay or Amazon. If that doesn’t appeal, you could go for a shirt bearing the snazzy acronym “ABE”. Or you could just settle down with a laptop and browse one of the Anyone but England Facebook pages. There is (inevitably) an Anyone but England Twitter hashtag, and in the buildup to every England game pictures are posted of people wrapped in the flags of the opposing nations. These anti-England selfies appear alongside internet memes lampooning the England team and their supporters.

Perhaps predictably the biggest market for Anyone but England “merch” lies north of the border. It was Scottish football fans who first adopted the phrase en masse in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup. The tradition is now so well established that it was the subject of a 2012 academic paper entitled “Anyone but England? Exploring anti-English sentiment as part of Scottish national identity in sport”.

Anyone but England has found equally fertile soil in Wales. As demonstrated by the Bangor man who has dutifully flown the flag of every nation England has faced in this World Cup, from Tunisia to Sweden. He plans to keep doing so until Gareth Southgate’s squad are knocked out of the tournament.

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But the Anyone but England sentiment has never been limited to the other home nations – to use a phrase that feels increasingly past its sell-by date. There are those in England who are willing to lend their support to any team, so long as they aren’t wearing three lions on their chests. It is perhaps unsurprising that many of those who take this view are on the left. With its internationalist leanings, the left has always been suspicious of overt displays of nationalism, preferring class-consciousness to blind patriotism. The waving of flags, the chanting of chants and the surrender of individuality to the emotion of the crowd, none of this traditionally warms the liberal heart. Some Anyone but Englanders explain their stance by claiming that although the English are famously gracious losers, we can be terrible winners. While defeats, especially ones that come after brave displays of never-say-die tenacity, might bring out the finer aspects in our national character, victories, so the argument goes, bring our worst traits to the surface; a latent sense of entitlement and swaggering feeling of national superiority.

They point to the “two world wars and one World Cup” mentality, and the determination of sections of the English press and of parts of the fan base to use the England team as a rallying point for a xenophobic and sometimes racist strain of English nationalism. It is the thought of the worst of England’s supporters chanting “two world wars and two World Cups” into the faces of German fans at Euro 2020 that sends a shiver down the spine and helps fuel the Anyone But England tendency.

Anyone but England T-shirts have found a market among those who don’t like English nationalism. Photograph: Amazon

But there is also a snootier side to it, which pervades across the political spectrum. There’s always been a snobby dismissal of football and the emotions it elicits in millions of people. And then there are people like myself who, in order to be swept up in England’s success, have had to learn to suppress certain memories and seek to reclaim our national symbols.

For black and Asian people of my generation, the England team and the cross of St George were once ingredients in a toxic broth. For decades, a minority of England fans brought the nation and the national team into disrepute, bringing violence both to foreign streets and immigrant communities at home. The banner that fluttered above many of these ugly scenes was the flag of St George.

Such violence and abuse have not completely gone away, but in recent years those memories and associations have increasingly seemed out of step with contemporary reality. Gareth Southgate’s squad, with an average age of 26, have no memories of those earlier decades. They are England’s most diverse World Cup team, 11 of the 23-man squad are black or mixed-race, and that diversity runs deeper, beyond so-called visible minorities. Harry Kane, for example, is of Irish descent.

For black and Asian people of my generation, the England team and the cross of St George were ingredients in a toxic broth

Underestimated and until now overshadowed by the “golden generation” that preceded them, they are a team who exhibit none of the swaggering entitlement that previous England teams were – wrongly or rightly – accused of. In this, the manager leads by example. Arrogance is the last charge one could raise against Southgate. Composure, humility, integrity and intellect are the words that have been most commonly attached to him during this tournament.

Southgate’s first words about Sweden, after his dramatic victory against Colombia, were respectful and cautious. Praising the Swedish national side, he reminded the nation of England’s long and inglorious habit of underestimating the Swedes, and often paying a heavy price for doing so.

In this glorious summer we find ourselves with a young, diverse, dynamic team who evidently like one another and are led by an inspirational manager. He in turn is supported by a backroom staff made up of intelligent and inspirational professionals such as the psychologist Dr Pippa Grange, the woman being credited with helping England win their first penalty shootout in a World Cup. A new professionalism and a new culture has been forged under the St George’s flags that flutter over England’s training camp, St George’s Park near Derby.

It is not just that our nation has changed, making it possible for those once suspicious to feel differently about our national symbols and national team. More profoundly than that, this team and the manager have become agents in that process of change.

Speaking to ITV last week, Southgate explained his broader mission: “We are a team that represents modern England and in England we’ve spent a bit of time being a bit lost as to what our modern identity is … Of course, first and foremost I will be judged on football results. But we have a chance to affect other things that are even bigger.”

It’s difficult to think of a more likable squad, with a more inspiring back story, and impossible to imagine a better moment to throw old reservations aside and embrace this England team.